1. Field
Embodiments presented in this disclosure generally relate to virtual environments. More specifically, embodiments of the invention are directed to techniques for automatically relocating users of virtual environment to locations near friends and characters.
2. Description of the Related Art
Multiplayer video games and virtual worlds have rapidly become popular forms of online entertainment. Both generally provide users with access to a virtual environment where they may interact with one another. Users control virtual likenesses to navigate the virtual environments. Such environments may be persistent where events occur and users interact with each other regardless of the presence of any particular user. Alternatively, such environments may be game or session based, e.g., where a group of users participate in a match of a first-person shooter game. Some virtual environments also provide characters that are not client users, but users provided by the online environment itself. Such characters may be controlled by a human actor or an automated bot. For example, users visiting a virtual amusement park may be greeted by parks mascots.
User interaction with other users and characters is often a prominent feature of these virtual environments. A user may, for example, meet and chat with other users/characters, or complete quests with other users/characters. It is not uncommon for a service provider hosting an online virtual environment to provide means for users to “friend” other users and to store the other users' screen names and information in “friends list.” In some instances, the service provider may further indicate whether a given friend or character is online and the virtual environment location of the online friend or characters. In such a case, users can navigate the online environment to find a friend or character. Often, such navigation requires the user to manually traverse virtual rooms and it may further require the user to log out of one server and into a different server. This can be a time-consuming and frustrating experience, and the user may ultimately be unable to relocate to the friend or character's location in the virtual world (e.g., because the user gets lost or because the room the friend or character is in has access restrictions). Further, when a user and a friend/character are in different instances of a virtual world or in different virtual worlds, the user may be required to sign out of one world or instance of a world and into the other world or instance of a world.